31 Aug 2014

Public officers have been implored to tell the truth when reporting to ministries even when projects are failing.

Speaking at the fifth Northern Work Improvement Team (WITS) convention recently, the coordinator of Government Implementation Coordination Office (GICO), Mr Lewis Malikongwa said officers had a tendency of covering themselves by reporting that things were going well, and then retracting to report that the same projects were failing.

“There is need for officers to tell the truth even when failing because dishonesty will catch up with them, it has happened before,” he said.

Mr Malikongwa pointed out that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development was closer to the people, an interface between government and the people therefore service delivery was paramount.

He said the concept of WITS encouraged speed and quality of services delivered as well as the spirit of team work, thus improved productivity and quality service.

He implored public officers to be resilient because there would always be adversities and challenges to reach the success level of service delivery desired by their ministry.

“You should not count on the number of times you have fallen but the times that you or your organisation has put a smile on the face of your customer,” he said.

He observed that there was need for public officers to change their mindset to achieve efficient service delivery and to selflessly serve their communities.

Mr Malikongwa, however, commended the northern region WITS conveners for coming up with new initiatives and new partnerships, which he said showed commitment to WITS matters and issues affecting service delivery.

In his remarks, the assistant council secretary for Maun Administration Authority, Mr Uyapo Mafunye said the WITS convention was mandated to share both bad and good practices.

He said if public officers strived to do better, subsequently good results would follow. 

He said it was good to share experiences of success and failures for others to benchmark and improve service delivery.

The northern region includes the North West District Council, Chobe District Council, Francistown City Council and Ghanzi District Council. ENDS